REFUGE (n). That which shelters or protects from danger or calamity; a sanctuary inaccessible to an enemy.

This is a story about a little place a long way away from the decision-makers in Brisbane and Canberra, a story about a tiny bird and a big, big man, and a story which asks: when is a refuge not a refuge?

Before ornithology, some stats. No matter how big you think Queensland’s mining boom is, the investment, size of the holes, flow-on effect, you aren’t even close. Right now, winding through the passages of the Great Barrier Reef are 1722 ships a year. That is forecast to become 10,150 by 2020 almost 200 a week, a coal-ship highway. (Word of advice: If you haven’t dived the reef, do it soon.)

The best thing about Queensland’s boom is that, sitting in Brisbane’s easy Saturday morning prosperity, urbanites enjoy its benefits without confronting the dirty work. Mining happens far away at some tiny spot we’ll never visit. Welcome to Alpha, in central Queensland, where one of the largest of dozens of mines planned is Clive Palmer’s Waratah Coal “China First’’ thermal coal mine project in the Galilee Basin. Four underground mines, two surface mines, covering almost 700,000ha, exporting 40 million tonnes a year.

Smack bang in the way is the Bimblebox Nature Refuge, a 8000ha patch of drylands ecosystem (bimblebox.org). Now, you read the word “refuge’’ and thought, uh oh, sounds like a problem. Not in this state. Apparently, under Queensland law, wide-scale mining of nature refuges is allowed when it suits.

In May last year, 15 black-throated finches were spotted near a water trough at Bimblebox by sharp-eyed Maureen Cooper. Birdlife Australia says these finches are “as rare as hen’s teeth’‘. The extraordinary sighting of Poephila cincta cincta was confirmed by its Atlas of Birds Project. Yet, Bimblebox would be consumed by China First. Bye bye birdie, bye bye.

Waratah Coal managing director Nui Harris says it will buy offset land nearby. Clive Palmer is no stranger to controversy. The billionaire often bounces up in the headlines boasting he’s got plenty of money and how the Greens are a plot of the CIA. He once listed “litigation’’ as a hobby in his Who’s Who entry. All in all, powerful friend, tough enemy.

When bird friend Paola Cassoni, with others, set up the Bimblebox Nature Refuge and signed the land over in 2003, they believed it would be protected forever. On paper, a nature refuge is a legal agreement with the State Government.

What exactly is the point of having a carbon tax when the gov’ts allow the greedy mining corporations to rape and pillage every landscape and waterway in existence??? Just because these mining magnates have lots of money, it shouldn’t give them the right to displace people or endangered species to swell their private coffers even more. I would like to know exactly who is running this country. Is it the rich mining magnates or the gov’ts. I imagine that the polititions who suck up to the rich are not doing so for nothing.

Posted by TV Resident on 25/06/12 at 09:26 AM

So here is the conundrum.
When is a Reserve not a Reserve?
answer
When it suits some rich bastard to trash it.
Beware Tasmania we have already seen
Ogilvie Park sold off to Gunns for an office.
Teekoopana Plateau converted from Reserve to Huon pine forest operations.
Tooms Lake unreserved and turned into logging land.
Next
Any IGA reserves that come in the sights?

Posted by Pete Godfrey on 25/06/12 at 09:40 AM

It seems only yesterday, it WAS only yesterday, that the US published the revised estimates of sea level rise, indicating that it would be 2-3 times higher than the previous predictions.

We can now expect the rise to be from 500mm to 1400mm by 2100, but even that doesn’t factor in the likely effects of Twiggy, Can-do, Tony and Gina. Inland real estate will boom.

John Hayward

Posted by john hayward on 25/06/12 at 01:37 PM

Anyone who thinks that the world is *actually* doing something about CO2 emissions has been, to be polite, misled.

I was very much in favour of cutting CO2 from about 1988 until sometime circa 2005 when I realised what was really going on. Faced with a relentless and accelerating trend only a fool would deny that we’re going to *actually* cut fossil fuel use anytime soon unless by accident.

No doubt some will label me a defeatist, but I think it’s reality. Actions speak louder than words and in the 24 years since most Australians first heard about “the greenhouse effect” the problem has become massively worse with massive growth in the use of coal, gas and to a lesser extent oil both at home and globally.

It’s a lost cause as I see it. The power stations, planes, ships and so on already built or under construction will burn massive amounts of fuel over their lifetimes. Meanwhile we actively encourage lesser developed countries to follow in our footsteps - and one of them alone is now burning 3 BILLION tonnes of coal a year.

If climate change is real then it’s going to happen. The best we can do here in Tasmania is plan to adapt.

The Barrier Reef? Oh yeah… That’s just another casualty of burning the lot.

One thing I am worried about in a practical sense though, is when we actually run out of fuel for use within Australia. Practically all the gas is now either committed to exports or existing domestic use - what’s left in eastern Australia is about equal to the lifetime requirements of just one large baseload power station. So we’re pretty much out of gas - even mining giant Rio Tinto says they can’t obtain long term supply.

The rate things are going, coal is going to join the list pretty quickly. The only operating mine in SA is running out, we’re set to export much of the (fairly limited) reserves in WA and there are plans to do likewise with Tasmania’s limited coal reserves. At the rate things are going, it won’t be too long before we see a peak in production in Qld and NSW too - virtually all of which will, of course, be committed to export.

Which leaves us dependent on brown coal, nuclear or renewables to power Australia. Something tells me that jobs in the Latrobe Valley (main brown coal mining region in Vic) are going to be somewhat safer than many seem to be assuming. With the alternatives sold off, we’ve got little choice other than to keep using the stuff…

Posted by Shaun on 26/06/12 at 08:33 PM

Shaun (#3)

I have to agree. Civilisation today is like an inveterate 2 pack a day, and climbing, smoker. It knows it’s going to kill it but it just can’t seem to muster the willpower to quit.

Early signs of Cancer have been appearing around the world. Will we take the biospehere with us I wonder?

Posted by Stephan on 02/07/12 at 07:52 AM

Change is possible but not in the time available before it gets away from us. Forward looking people are seeing that the chance has gone because people do not want a reduction in consumer lifestyle, we are committed to growth.

Look around Hobart and you will see concerned citizens doing their bit; in all the streets cars are being fired up to run for five or ten minutes to defrost windows and warm the inside before the work commute. Individually small but additively large. But this is far, far, surpassed by the coal mine bonanza (see: http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/article/sexy-coals-pin-ups-of-2012/ ).

Adaptation is what we can try but for the ecosystems that support us it is life or death. I went to a recent conference that focussed on this topic and learned that:
A- DPIPWE already fielding enquires from interstate bodies looking to establish refugia for alpine plants and animals on the mainland that are slated for extinction as their ecology disappears.
B- Tasmanian scientists are already searching for refugia sites for Tassie ecosystems at risk and are exploring the possibility of using Macquarie Island as a refuge for Tasmanian plants and animals likely to disappear. The problem is that as the world warms, Tasmanian ecosystems have nowhere to go.

As for people and adaptation, probably a more pressing concern is what happens when the oil leaves us. What will be left? Where will we get mangoes or prawns? Where will our saffron and wagyu beef go? What happens to tourism?

These questions are being discussed but not, I fear, at any policymaking level or with any sense of urgency.

Like global warming we will deal with it ‘when it happens’.

Posted by Jon Sumby on 04/07/12 at 09:58 AM

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